The Municipal Services Restructuring

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The Municipal Services Restructuring (South Africa) Project (MSP I)

Project ID: 100192
Status: Closed
Duration: January 1, 2000 to August 31, 2002
IDRC Funding: CAD $495,800
Collaborating Institutions: Southern African Research Centre, Queen`s University, Kingston, Canada. University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, South Africa.
IDRC Funding Unit: Assessment of Social Policy Reform (ASPR)

Background

Since the end of formal apartheid in the early 1990s, every piece of major legislation in South Africa has been reviewed or rewritten. Government policies on education, housing, health care and social security have all been revamped and will continue to be the subject of policy-makers’ attention for many years to come.

As a sub-set of social policy, the restructuring of municipal services in South Africa has also been directly affected by the changes taking place. The delivery of basic facilities like sewerage, sanitation, water, electricity and roads to the urban and rural poor has been shaped by the same kinds of policy initiatives as health care and education and will impact directly on the ability of the government to provide these social services in an equitable, sustainable and democratic manner. The delivery of basic services touches on every facet of social policy reform, from private health care to the delivery of new houses, and is therefore a cornerstone of the South African government's reconstruction and development initiatives.

Project Summary and Evaluation

The Municipal Service Restructuring project was initiated with the financial support of the IDRC to measure these challenges. It was completed on August 31, 2002. The project fulfilled its objectives and exceeded its original research plans with the addition of research and training grants from other funding agencies that both complemented and enriched the project's mandate. The research team has also developed collaborative research efforts with new research groups and organizations.

Overall, the project assessed the impact of decentralization and local government restructuring, privatization and cost recovery in municipal services on the delivery of those services, while also developing options for effective and equitable service delivery and financing. It also established multi-stakeholder fora as arenas for negotiating service delivery options in each municipality.

One of the manifestations of the success of the project in disseminating information has been the enormous amount of secondary coverage in the print and electronic media. This has contributed considerably to the national, regional and international debate around service delivery and pro-poor policies, even influencing the decision of the South African Government to introduce the lifeline free water policy, which will be an object of research in the second phase (link) of the project.

The project has established itself as one of the lead research organizations in the area of service delivery in South Africa. It has effectively combined networks and structures of accountability at the grassroots level (civic organizations, labour). Training and capacity building for students in Canada and South Africa has been successful, with several dozen students and community-based researchers involved in research activities such as the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. There has also been considerable capacity building within the various partner organizations with the creation of additional research skills, new research contacts, and enhanced organizational strengths and resources.

Further Information
Dr. David McDonald
Director, Development Studies, Queen`s University¸
152 Albert Street
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
K7L 3N6
Tel: (613) 533-6962
Fax: (613) 533-2171
Dm23@post.queensu.ca

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